To complete a credit analysis on a current or prospective borrower, an accurate balance sheet is crucial. Actually getting balance sheet information from a customer is even more crucial. Having a streamlined way to get balance sheets saves both the bank and the borrower time. FINPACK Lite, a free balance sheet only version of FINPACK available to bank customers, makes collecting balance sheets easier. As a Lender with FINPACK, you have the rights to distribute FINPACK Lite to your customers.

Cash is king! Every business needs cash to meet its financial obligations. But how much cash a farm generates is not a very good indicator of how the business is performing. One of the main reasons is cash basis taxation. The right to file taxes based on cash rather than accrual income gives farms tremendous flexibility to manage taxable income. The result is that very high performing farms and farms that are struggling financially often have similar bottom lines on their Schedule F’s. [Read more…]

Cost balance sheets value assets at purchase price less accumulated depreciation. This accumulated depreciation can be done using tax or management depreciation methods. Management depreciation differs from tax depreciation by using the economic or useful life of the asset for depreciation calculations.

Using cost balance sheets allow lenders to better monitor the financial performance of the business over time. With cost balance sheets, net worth growth comes from business retained earnings. Cost value balance sheets do not have market valuation changes affecting the net worth of the business. Hence true business performance is measured by the cost balance sheet.

Trading machinery and equipment is common for all types of businesses. The Fall 2017 FINPACK update allows more streamlined data entry of capital purchases, sales, and trades within FINPACK. By entering extra detail on the FINPACK balance sheet, you can bring the details of these capital transactions into other FINPACK analysis tools, like Schedule F Cash to Accrual and Earned Net Worth Analysis.

On the balance sheet, data entry fields have been added to allow for the entry of purchase price, year sold, and sale price for machinery and equipment; titled vehicles; buildings and improvements; and land. Purchases or sales of capital assets has very straightforward data entry. Data entry for a trade should include:

The FINPACK Team is offering online videos and webinars for you and your team to learn about the updates to FINPACK released this past November. These updates include the new cash flow projection tools and the addition of capital purchases and sales information in the balance sheets. Details of these updates are found in the video below.

FINPACK now offers 3 types of cash flow projections: Annual Plan, Monthly Plan, and Monthly Plan with Budgets. All three tools provide pro forma statements; debt coverage and other ratios; and the ability to complete multi-year plans. Choosing the projection tool to use depends on the situation.

The 2017 update of FINPACK includes significant changes to cash flow projections. FINPACK now has a section for Legacy Projections and Projections. So, what is the difference and where did my old cash flows go?

FINPACK Knowledge Base has resources, input forms, and other helpful topics to aid in using FINPACK. Go to this website as you begin using FINPACK or if you are looking for helpful hints and tricks to enhance your use of the software.

Deferred liabilities are the taxes and other expenses to be paid when assets are sold. Deferred taxes are the difference between the balance sheet value of an asset and its tax basis. In other words, if the business is liquidated, what taxes would be due on current inventories and capital assets?